Digital Futures – Safiya Umoja Noble

Concordia President's Speaker Series on Digital Futures

April 3, 2018, 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Concordia University is developing a digital strategy. This is just one of the transformational projects being adopted in 2017-2018 as part of a Strategic Directions initiative to position Concordia as a next-generation university.

Concordia President’s Speaker Series on Digital Futures will bring a diverse group of thought leaders to the university to engage faculty, staff and students. They will share their experience and insights in order to spark conversations and reflections as we work together to develop a shared vision for Concordia's digital future.

Safiya Umoja Noble, Assistant Professor, Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California

The landscape of information is rapidly shifting as new imperatives and demands push to the fore increasing investment in digital technologies. Yet, critical information scholars continue to demonstrate how digital technology and its narratives are shaped by and infused with values that are not impartial, disembodied, or lacking positionality.

Technologies consist of a set of social practices, situated within the dynamics of race, gender, class, and politics, and in the service of something -- a position, a profit motive, a means to an end.

In this talk, Safiya Umoja Noble will discuss the importance of models of intervention and resistance through research, practice and teaching. Her research examines the linkages to power struggles over representation on the web and in the digital library, and the consequences of marginalization and misrepresentation in commercial information platforms like Google search.

About Safiya Umoja Noble

Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble is an assistant professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication. Previously, she was appointed in the Department of Information Studies, African American Studies, and Gender Studies at UCLA. She is the recipient of a Hellman Fellowship and UCLA Early Career Award.